Warriors FC

History

1975–1995

The Singapore Armed Forces Sports Association (SAFSA) football team was formed in 1975 to provide talented footballers serving National Service with opportunities to play competitive football. That year, they won the President's Cup, a feat that they repeated in 1978, when they also captured the National Football League title to complete double. Their Under-19 team won the national Under-19 title in 1979, 1980 and 1983, while the 1981 season of the National Football League saw the SAFSA emerge as unbeaten champions. The President's Cup was won by them again in 1984 and 1986, the latter time as part of a second double, as they also won the National Football League on goal difference. In 1990, the Pools Cup went to the SAFSA and their convincing displays led to their selection as one of eight clubs to compete in the newly formed S.League.

1996–2005

The club than revamp it named to Singapore Armed Forces Football Club (SAFFC) and also adopt a new mascot as in its club logo where they joined the inaugural S.League in 1996. The reserve team which still keep its old name and old logo also resulted in the withdrawal of SAFSA from the National Football League. SAFSA would not participate in Singaporean football leagues again until 1999, when they rejoined the league. SAFFC than finished second in 1996 in its debut season where they signed 5 Croatian players Ivica Raguž, Jure Ereš, Velimir Crljen, Davor Mioč and Goran Grubesic. With Grubesic leaving the club at the end of the 1996 season, SAFFC continued with 4 of the remaining foreigners where the club went on to win back-to-back S.League title in 1997 and 1998.

After retiring from football, club captain Fandi Ahmad took over from Mladen Pralija as the club head coach in 1999 where he guided them to win the S.League title in 2000 and 2002.

Three coaches were at the reins during this period, each lasting only one season. SAFFC finished second in 2005 but otherwise outside the top two.

2006–2012

Singaporean Richard Bok took over as SAFFC's head coach in 2006 and led them to four consecutive league championships from 2006 to 2009.

In 2008, SAFFC became the first Singaporean club to achieve a back-to-back domestic double, after winning both the S.League and the Singapore Cup in 2007 and 2008.

AFC Champions League debut

In 2009, SAFFC qualified for the AFC Champions League by defeating Thailand champions PEA and PSMS Medan of Indonesia in the Eastern zone play-offs, becoming Singapore's first-ever representative at the highest club competition in Asia.

SAFFC were drawn in a group with J.League champions Kashima Antlers, K League champions Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Chinese Super League runners-up Shanghai Shenhua. They lost all of their matches, except for a 1–1 draw against Shanghai Shenhua at home.

In 2010, SAFFC qualified for their second consecutive AFC Champions League by registering a 3–0 home win against Sriwijaya of Indonesia and defeated Muangthong United of Thailand in the Eastern zone play-off final, again at home. Against Henan Jianye of China in the group stage, they drew in the two teams' first encounter and won the return leg 2–1 in Singapore, finishing third in a group that also contained familiar rivals Suwon Samsung Bluewings and former champions Gamba Osaka.

2013–2019

On 20 January 2013, SAFFC announced that they had changed their name to Warriors Football Club ahead of the 2013 S.League season.

Englishmen Alex Weaver, in his first full season as coach of Warriors FC, clinched the 2014 S.League title on the last day of the competition for the Warriors. With DPMM of Brunei leading the table until the last day, the Warriors scored a 1–0 win over Albirex Niigata Singapore and received a favour from Tampines Rovers, who beat DPMM 2–1 to hand Warriors their first title in 5 years and their 9th title in the league's 19-year history.

However, good times did not last for the Warriors. In November 2019, the team were brought to court and charged with 107 counts of not paying salaries for their staff. In total, they failed to pay more than S$350,000 in salaries to about 30 employees, including players, coaches and supporting staff.

2 days after the incident was reported, ST reported that there were 2 parties that were interested to take over Warriors FC.

On 31 December 2019, the FAS had instructed the Warriors to sit out the 2020 Singapore Premier League season due to their financial and legal issues. They applied to return to the Singapore Premier League and Singapore Cup competitions for 2021 to no avail.

Stadium

The Warriors were initially based at the Jurong Stadium until 2000, before permanetely moving to the 4,268 capacity Choa Chu Kang Stadium in 2001.

Permanently sealed success into history at Choa Chu Kang Stadium

The stadium has become familiar for its elegant and soaring curved white steel roof, with supporting pylons, that covers the main grandstand. The football pitch itself consists of a self-watering "cell-system" turf pitch installation, supplied from Switzerland and approved by FIFA for international competition. The club has won 6 League titles during their time here.

Before the 2015 SEA Games commenced, they had to vacate Choa Chu Kang Stadium and instead played their home matches at the Woodlands Stadium for the 2015 season instead.

Seasons

• The 1996 season of the S.League was split into two series. Tiger Beer Series winners Geylang United defeated Pioneer Series winners Singapore Armed Forces in the championship play-off to clinch the S.League title.
• 2003 saw the introduction of penalty shoot-outs if a match ended in a draw in regular time. Winners of penalty shoot-outs won two points instead of one.

Performance in AFC competitions

• AFC Champions League: 3 appearances ::2009: Group stage ::2010: Group stage ::2015: Second qualifying round
• Asian Club Championship: 3 appearances ::1999: First round ::2000: Second round ::2002: First round
• AFC Cup: 4 appearances ::2007: Quarter-finals ::2008: Quarter-finals ::2013: Group stage ::2015: Group stage
• AFC Cup Winners Cup: 2 appearances ::1998: Second round ::2001: First round

Personal awards

Domestic

• League Player of the Year
  • CRO Ivica Raguž (1996)
  • SGP Mirko Grabovac (2000)
  • THA Therdsak Chaiman (2002)
  • SIN Aleksandar Đurić (2007, 2008)
  • BIH Mislav Karoglan (2011)
  • SIN Hassan Sunny (2014)
• League Young Player of the Year
  • ARG Nicolás Vélez (2014)
• League Coach of the Year
  • SGP Jita Singh (1998)
  • SGP Fandi Ahmad (2000)
  • SGP Richard Bok (2006, 2007, 2009)
• League Top Scorer
  • SGP CRO Jure Ereš (1996)
  • SGP Mirko Grabovac (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002)
  • SIN Aleksandar Đurić (2007, 2008, 2009)
  • BIH Mislav Karoglan (2011)
• League Golden Gloves
  • SIN Hassan Sunny (2009)

Awards

Player of the Year Award

Top scorers

• Mirko Grabovac was naturalised from 2002 until he renounced his Singaporean citizenship in 2008.

• Aleksandar Đurić was naturalised since 2007.

Honours

League

• Singapore Premier League (record)
  • Champions (9): 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2014
  • Runners-up (4): 1996, 1999, 2001, 2005

Cup

• Singapore Cup
  • Champions (4): 1999, 2007, 2008, 2012
  • Runners-up (3): 1998, 2000, 2019
• Singapore Community Shield
  • Champions (3): 2008, 2010, 2015
  • Runners-up (1): 2013
• President's Cup
  • Champions (3): 1975, 1984, 1986

Reserve

• **Singapore FA Cup **(record)
  • Champions (4): 1997, 2006, 2008, 2017
• Singapore League Cup
  • Runners-up (2): 2009, 2017

Records and statistics

Top 10 all-time appearances

Top 10 all-time scorers

• Biggest Wins: 9–0 vs Sembawang Rangers (On 15 June 2002)
• Heaviest Defeats: 8–1 vs Home United (On 18 August 2004)
• Youngest Goal scorers: Marijan Šuto ~ 19 years 7 months 3 days old (On 5 May 2016 vs DPMM)
• Oldest Goal scorers: Aleksandar Đurić ~ 39 years 2 months 4 days old (On 16 October 2009 vs Sengkang Punggol)
• Youngest ever debutant: Danial Zulkifli ~ 17 years 2 months 6 days old (On 25 July 2016 vs Geylang International)

Former managers

References

References

1. "SAFFC renamed as Warriors FC". ESPN Star.
2. "Origins".
3. Malathi Das and Palakrishnan (1996), "S.League: the kick-off", Singapore Professional Football League Pte Ltd, p. 38
4. "Warriors Football Club charged with not paying players, staff salaries of more than S$350,000".
5. (November 9, 2019). "SPL club Warriors up for foreign takeover?".
6. "Football: FAS instructs Warriors FC to sit out 2020 SPL season, club asks for urgent meeting".
7. (12 October 2020). "Warriors FC seek return to Singapore Premier League and Cup for 2021.".